


eatalk

by geekintheblack



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/M, Food as a Metaphor for Love, featuring the danvers-olsen family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 18:23:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16046042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geekintheblack/pseuds/geekintheblack
Summary: In which Marcus Danvers-Olsen has a difficult weekend, his parents are concerned, his little sister is nosy, and everyone in this family communicates through food.





	eatalk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cuddlyreyes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuddlyreyes/gifts).



Marcus closes his bedroom door with an annoyed huff and tosses his backpack on top of the bed, checking the time on his phone and relaxing when he realizes it’ll be another couple of hours before mom and dad are home.

 

He’s not really supposed to be home yet - his soccer practice goes until six every thursday, but today he’d been sent home early with some strong words and a note. He won’t be allowed back before his parents contact coach Watts and set up a meeting with him to ‘discuss his attitude’. It’s all bullshit. Fucking Peyton.

 

Regardless, he doesn’t really want to deal with explaining himself at the moment, so he’s grateful that the apartment is quiet for now. Liv has a sleepover at her best friend’s so no loud cartoons either, and he kicks off his sneakers before making his way back to the kitchen.

 

To his utter disappointment, there’s nothing homemade except for shepherd’s pie leftovers. He hates shepherd’s pie almost as much as he does grapes. He’s the pickiest eater in the house and mom blames aunt Lena’s influence. He grabs a bag of chips without much enthusiasm and collapses on the couch, turning on the TV but not really paying attention. It’s almost two hours later when his attention is captured by the jiggling of keys and a loud thud followed by some Kryptonian curses. Mom’s home.

 

“Hey, /unah/, how was your day?” she asks as soon as she’s inside, dropping her grocery bags at the counter before walking over to kiss his temple. He grunts like the moody teenager he is and she laughs. “That bad, huh? Well, cheer up, it’s taco night!”

 

That  _ does _ cheer him up a little bit. “And where’s dad?”

 

“He had a conference call with some stuffy guy from the mayor’s office, it’s about that expansion project for the legal office downtown. Don’t worry, he’ll be home in time. And,” she gives him a wink, “I can always pick him up.”

 

They set up the kitchen together while waiting for James and it doesn’t take long before the front door is opening again. Dad greets him much the same way Mom does - with a kiss on the temple and a light squeeze of his shoulders - and tells him to go get ready for dinner while they finish up.

 

Marcus feels himself extremely relaxed after such a stressful day, and decides there’s no need to talk to them about soccer practice tonight. It could wait a day or two, maybe until Liv was home and distracting their parents with her bubbly seven-year-old personality and tendency of running around for no reason. Rao, that girl has  _ some  _ energy.

 

He settles down at the table and grabs a plate.  _ No reason to ruin this. _

 

-o-

 

When he gets home the next day, mom is already there, which is… odd. Fridays are usually quite busy at CatCo, but he shrugs internally. Maybe Supergirl had an eventful day, it’s happened before, though he browsed the news on his phone while taking the subway and can’t really remember anything big happening.

 

He greets her and goes up to his room to leave his stuff and change into something lighter - the heat had caught him by surprise on the way home. He emerges a half hour later intending to look for a snack - but freezes at the sight of his mom sitting at the dinner table, a slice of lemon pie (his favorite) on the opposite end.

 

_ Oh boy _ , he thinks as soon as he catches her eye.  _ She knows. _

 

He walks over slowly, berating himself for behaving like a small child scared of getting an earful. The chair makes a loud noise against the hardwood floor as he pulls it back. Has it always been this gratingly loud? He sits down and grabs a fork, looking back up at his mom, who hasn’t said a single word yet.

 

He eats a bite, two. It tastes amazing. Eyes up, and she’s still silent, still watching him.

 

He finishes his slice and pushes the plate forward a little, signalling that he’s done. He looks up and-

 

“Coach Watts called me at the office today. We had a nice chat.”

 

_ Fucking. Peyton. _

 

“Why did you try to hurt your teammate, Marcus?”

 

-o-

 

She’s mad. He knows it by the crinkle between her eyebrows and the sound of a plate breaking coming from the kitchen. She probably grabbed it with too much force. Damn it, she’s  _ really _ mad. Mom rarely loses control of her strength, especially since newborn humans started popping up in the family.

 

He hadn’t told her anything, not really. Some dumb story about Peyton beating him at a stupid online game and taunting him about it later. Something about him just meaning to punch him in the shoulder with a little force, just boys roughhousing, but misjudging his strength by a ton. He says he doesn’t know what happened.

 

He knows exactly what happened.

 

But he’s not about to repeat any of those hurtful things to his mom’s face. He’s not.

 

So he takes the two weeks without his games and no hanging out at the DEO until further notice. He nods when she says dad will talk to him later, too. He’ll just repeat the same story, bear the disappointment and the punishment, and move on.

 

He should’ve known better. When dad walks in, he doesn’t get a chance to say anything before the older man speaks.

 

“Your mom knows you’re lying, son. She’s very worried about you, and so am I.” He crosses his arms and frowns.  _ Now you’ve done it, Marcus. _ “This isn’t like you, you never want to hurt anyone or anything, so what gives?”

 

“Look, he just- he just pissed me off, okay? It happens! I’m already grounded so what else do you want?!”

 

He can tell by the way his dad’s eyes widen that he’s taken aback. Good, maybe he’ll stop asking questions. But he feels guilt stirring deep inside him. This isn’t how they deal with things in this family and he knows he’s probably scaring his parents by now.

 

James sighs and sits at the foot of the bed. “You know, son, when I was your age…”

 

_ Oh, Rao. _

 

-o-

 

His dad gives him a cookie after his long-winded speech about opportunities in life, and family, and a bunch of other stuff Marcus definitely paid attention to but doesn’t want to think about just yet. It’s not the first nor the fifth time he’s heard it.

 

He takes a bite and it tastes… almost bitter.  _ This is so stupid. I’m being a little kid about this and I need to just suck it up. _

 

But dinner is awful. His parents are giving him space but he catches them shooting him worried looks and even Liv is confused about the tension between her family members. It’s his turn to do the dishes so he collects them in a hurry as soon as everyone’s done.

 

When it’s late, almost midnight, his bedroom door creaks open and Liv pokes her head inside. She probably sneaked out of her bedroom, which means mom is out superheroing and didn’t hear her footsteps on the hall.

 

“Marky?”

 

He takes one look at her and tosses his phone aside, sitting up at the bed and patting the space beside him. “What is it, bug? Bad dream?”

 

She rolls her eyes with all the attitude a third-grader can muster up. Aunt Alex has a nice chunk of the blame for that one. “I don’t get  _ nightmares _ , Marcus-”

 

“Oh, it’s Marcus now?”

 

“Yeah, and I’m talking! Like I said, I don’t get nightmares, that’s for little babies and I’m not a baby anymore!”

 

“Aren’t you?” He still doesn’t know why she’s out of bed but this is amusing enough that he doesn’t question it.

 

“No! /ieiu/ said so after I made my own pancake all by myself last week. I’m a grown up now!” she says, finally sitting down with him.

 

“Okay then, Miss Grown Up, why aren’t you asleep?”

 

She shuffles in her seat and asks quietly, “Why were mom and dad looking like that at dinner?”

 

_ Shit.  _ “They were just, uh, tired. Because of work, you know, it was a hard day. You have a hard day sometimes, don’t you? Everyone does, bug, so don’t worry about it.”

 

“But they were looking at you all the time! Did you do something, Marky?” she asks, a bit louder this time, frowning, and he sighs. He knows by the look on her face that he’s not getting out of this one, and if he kicks her out of the room she’ll just be even more upset. With him.

 

“Look, there was this guy at soccer practice who said some… mean things. About /ieiu/, you know, really mean things. So I told him to stop, but he didn’t, and I got really mad and, well, I hurt him a little bit. But that’s not okay, bug!” he added hastily, “You can’t hurt other people, okay? I was just really mad and I made a mistake, and now I’m grounded but it’s okay. It’ll pass, so don’t worry about it, just go to bed, yeah?”

 

She nods and kisses him on the cheek before running off - thank Rao dad’s a heavy sleeper - back to her room.

 

When he looks back at the empty spot beside him, there’s a couple of his favorite candies nestled between the folds of his sheets. He breathes in deeply, carefully places the candy on top of his bedside table, and goes to sleep.

 

-o-

 

Saturday morning, aunt Alex comes to take them to the planetarium. Mom is already out and dad doesn’t press the issue about his grounding, giving him and Liv both a lunch bag and a kiss before hugging aunt Alex and going back to the kitchen. 

 

They have a fun few hours, and when lunchtime comes around, they sit at a bench on a nearby park and eat their sandwiches with gusto. He catches sight of a comic book store and nudges aunt Alex, who nudges Liv, and they both watch her face light up.

 

Soon enough, they’re inside and he busies himself with browsing the humour section while his aunt and sister have a blast looking at horror comics his parents would definitely not approve of. They’re discussing something, probably the finer points of zombie gore versus creepy ghost apparitions.

 

Aunt Alex suddenly stands up straight, hands Liv a crisp twenty and sends her on the way to the cashier, walks up to him and stands at his side while they watch the cute little thing paying for her purchase with a proud grin.

 

“So you defended your Ma’s honor, huh?”

 

He groans. “She can’t keep her mouth shut, can she?”

 

“Have you met her mother?” she asks, her eyebrows raised, and they both laugh. 

 

“Fair point.”

 

They’re silent for a minute before she continues. “It’s a family business, isn’t it? Someone insults Kara Danvers, we punch them for it and get some puppy dog eyes from her about it later. From, you know, the woman whose second job is to punch bad guys.”

 

“I lost control, Aunt Alex, but I don’t really regret it. Peyton had it coming,” he says, and mentally adds  _ the little fucker, that’ll teach him to be a racist, sexist bastard about my family ever again. _

 

“I’m not saying you were right, kid, I’m saying I understand.”

 

She takes them to Noonan’s later in the day, buys them a few bagels, and everything seems much better by the time they’re home and dinner rolls around.

 

-o-

 

On Sunday, Marcus is exhausted.

 

They’re not fighting. His parents don’t even seem mad at all, just concerned and… maybe dismayed is the right word. Or it isn’t, he doesn’t care. He’s just tired.

 

His parents are watching a movie downstairs, he can tell by his dad’s rumbling laughter every time his mom squeals. Horror movie, then. Probably clowns.

 

Liv is taking a nap in her room and he knows it’s the one opportunity he’ll get today, so he turns off his gaming system and walks down to the kitchen. 

 

On the way, he checks and confirms his parents have already all the popcorn within less than one fourth of the movie done. There’s already more popcorn popping, so he just waits and tosses it into the biggest bucket he can find when it’s done.

 

He walks into the living room and plops down between mom and dad without saying a word. 

 

They share a look as if he couldn’t see them, and mom grabs a handful of popcorn. Dad follows suit a few moments later, and the three watch the rest of the movie without incident.

 

When it’s over and credits are rolling, dad turns off the TV and they sit there in silence, Marcus holding the empty popcorn bucket in his hands as if it’s the only thing preventing him from bolting out of there. It might be.

 

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I’m sorry I lied. It wasn’t about a game and I did mean to punch him.”

 

He feels his mom grabbing his head and pulling him into her. He lets her hold him, and it’s a bit of an awkward position but he doesn’t mind. “Why?” she asks.

 

He answers.

 

-o-

 

Mom goes on and on about the virtues of exhausting all peaceful options before resorting to violence. It’s a Kryptonian thing, he knows, and he listens carefully because he values her opinion quite a bit. Dad agrees with her every word, but he’s also proud of him for standing up for his family, although, he says, there are smarter ways to go about it.

 

Mom makes macaroni and cheese for dinner, dad sneaks some homemade cookies into his lunch bag the next morning. He leaves for school with a kiss on the cheek from each of them and a loud “love you, dumb dumb” from his little sister.

 

He’s a bit of a sappy teenager, he knows. It’s a side effect of carrying the surname Danvers. But he can’t help but think this is the best family the universe could’ve possibly given him.

 

_ Suck it, Peyton. _

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so that's not the best title in the world, sue me.


End file.
